Board of Directors

President's Update

Hello PA-TSA! As the summer comes to an end and the school year comes into full swing there will be more information on the progress made by the state officers. So far, the team has made significant headway into planning the 2015 state conference to make it smooth and enjoyable for you. In addition to planning the conference, the officers proposed new ideas to the Board of Directors at the Bucknell Conference in July. Below is a quick overview of each of the officers proposals for the year.

As a team, we proposed to expand the website to allow the officers to communicate various initiatives that could be easily accessed by members.

Vice-President, Luke Artzt, is working to establish a Publications Committee, which would work towards publicizing and changing the way the PA-POST is distributed to members.

Secretary, Lisa Gardner, will be working to contact state legislators about the importance of continuing STEM education and invite them to show support for TSA by attending the State Conference. She also plans to develop a newsletter for alumni, business partners, and potential donors to keep them involved in TSA.

Sergeant-at-Arms, Beth Barbis, would like to coordinate a trip for the State Officer Team and the Board of Directors to visit a science teachers’ conference where members could publicize TSA.

Historian, Chirag Agarwal, would like to form partnerships with interested companies and create a site where students could post information and pictures of their projects from events like Engineering Design, Manufacturing Prototype, etc., so that these companies could easily pick out projects to sponsor.

Parliamentarian, Daphne Weiss, plans to create a resource page on the website with rules clarifications for certain events. She would also like to create a special interest session aimed at helping delegates understand parliamentary procedure.

Reporter, Morgan Lepre, and Madame Secretary, will be working to strengthening existing partnerships and developing new sponsorships. They will be working closely with the newly established Outreach Committee, chaired by member Samantha Horry. The goals of the Outreach Committee are to sustain existing partnerships, foster new sponsorships, create material used to gain and bolster sponsorships, and recruit qualified judges from STEM companies.

During the conference at Bucknell, the officers also elected the Green Committee Chairperson. This year, the committee will be co-chaired by Olivia Crocker and Ben Grunauer. To get in touch will them, use the email green [at] patsa.org. Throughout the year, there will be frequent updates on this part of the website so please be sure to check back regularly for more information on what your State Officer Team is up to. Aside from that, the team will be posting bi-monthly editions of the PA-POST. It will include articles written by the officers themselves as well as other interesting information. Finally, if you or your chapter are interested in increasing your membership or starting up a new chapter around you, please contact the chair of the membership committee at vice_president [at] patsa.org. In the meantime, if there is anything I can personally help you with, please don’t hesitate to contact me at president [at] patsa.org. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer PA-TSA!